Archive for the ‘Design’ Category
One-cup coffee company takes a dip
Thursday, May 10th, 2012
Plastics News featured the one-cup coffee maker trend a few weeks ago, highlighting the rapid growth in the segment -- and how plastics were benefitting. Readers of that story, "Brewing up market share, 1 cup at a time," may be...
Some short takes…
Tuesday, April 24th, 2012
Here are some short takes on plastics headlines from the past week: "Lego gets snapped at over girls' line of toys," from the San Francisco Chronicle's SFGate.com. According to the story, "a pair of feminist activists" is unhappy with the...
Pop culture fun with ‘Plastic Galaxy’
Tuesday, April 17th, 2012
Here's a fun post for Star Wars fans, and a nice pop culture reference for the plastics industry. Brian Stillman, a journalist and documentary filmmaker whose previous works include "Toys Are Us: A Revolution In Plastic," is working on a...
Reshoring and ‘buying American’ — Is it a trend yet?
Thursday, March 22nd, 2012
Anecdotal evidence continues to pile up that some manufacturers are "reshoring" -- bringing work back to North America. The story is becoming familiar. Companies say the advantages of bringing work back from places like China are the shorter supply chain,...
Award at NPE to shine a light on product design
Thursday, March 15th, 2012
Not only is the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. giving out awards to cool products in its triennial International Plastics Design Competition at NPE 2012, but from the same crop of nearly three dozen entries will emerge the winner...
Ford Asia official to keynote PN’s China conference
Wednesday, March 7th, 2012
Attendees to the China Plastics in Automotive 2012 conference in Shanghai on April 17 will gain insights into Ford Motor Co.'s vision for creating greener, more lightweight and fuel-efficient vehicles globally when they hear from keynote speaker Jennifer Gilhool. She's...
Explaining the new package recycling labels
Tuesday, February 28th, 2012
Have you noticed any of the new package recycling labels? Some manufacturers are voluntarily using the labels in an effort to make recycling easier. One of the biggest problems with the status quo labels is related to plastics -- specifically,...
Is innovation slipping at P&G?
Tuesday, February 21st, 2012
Here's a suprising fact: It has been five years since Procter & Gamble Co. launched a brand in the United States, and that product was niche probiotic Align. Is P&G, which has a long history as a creator of innovative...
Post-Super Bowl, a talk with the other Tom Brady
Monday, February 6th, 2012
How appropriate -- a day after the Super Bowl, Forbes.com has a Q&A interview today with the "other" Tom Brady -- you know, the plastics guy. Of course I'm talking about Tom Brady, the founder of Plastic Technologies Inc., the...
Spotlight on a star designer
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012
Top industrial designers are a bit like rock stars -- well known in their fields, and frequently known for their quirky personalities. Last weekend one was featured in The New York Times' Sunday Magazine -- including enough plastics manufacturing references...